


Being Honest

by oliv213



Category: Girl Meets World
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, High School, Punching
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-29
Updated: 2018-06-29
Packaged: 2019-05-30 08:29:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15093020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oliv213/pseuds/oliv213
Summary: Curious, Riley looks down. “Do they hurt?”Maya’s vision follows, her eyes flickering to every single knuckle, all bruised black and blue.Her ring finger was the worst, a sick yellow already forming.“Uh, yeah a little.”...“You know, it’s kind of hot.”---Or, Maya punches Lucas in the face and a very emotional conversation ensues.





	Being Honest

**Author's Note:**

> Soo, here we are. I didn't know I had such a thing for Lucas getting punched in the face? (Would've made for a great episode but you didn't here it from me).

“I love you Riley.”

“Maya-“

“I mean I’m in love with you Riley.”

Maya choked the words out. She couldn’t quite hear what she was saying above the ringing in her ears. Honestly when she came in today for detention she hadn’t planned on confessing all her feelings to Riley. 

But of course it was happening right now. 

Not at Huck’s rodeo, not at the lodge, not even in the bay window that they sit in nearly every day. 

Instead it was happening right here in the middle of the same classroom Riley’s dad used to teach in. 

Mr. Matthews had taught a lot of lessons but ‘what to do when you’re in love with my daughter’ was unfortunately (or fortunately), not one of them. 

Maya had held it in all this time. Up until now for some reason, sophomore year. 

Sometimes Maya thought she was cursed. 

She got past Uncle Boing. He was the one who was just out of reach. Never quite available. Perfect teen wolf good looks, charming demeanor, and he had a great alibi for why he couldn’t even look in Maya’s direction. Maya’s perfect man. 

Until he got engaged this year of course. 

For a while she thought maybe she could go back to liking Lucas, but at this point it would be too much of a lie. Manipulative really. 

Sure she hated the thought of him with Riley, the reality of him with Riley, but Huck wasn’t a bad guy. Didn’t deserve what she had already put him through. 

Including... the reason she was in detention in the first place. 

Topanga had a long talk with her about going to therapy. Maya figured it was probably the best decision considering the situation. The Matthews even insisted on paying for it. They wanted her to be good so bad. She wondered if they’d try so hard if they knew the truth. 

She’ll find out soon, she guesses. 

Maya had... punched Lucas. In the face. Right in his big square cowboy jaw. 

The real problem was that for a second, all she felt was pure satisfaction. 

This sick sort of adrenaline which fueled her ego. It was the thought that maybe Riley would see her as superior somehow, as a protector, that really powered the hit. 

Except Maya had made one horrible irreversible mistake. 

She was wearing a ring. 

Seeing stitches in one of her best friends faces and knowing she put them there was gut wrenching. She actually had to leave the principal's office to go throw up. 

Maya had done a lot of bad things but the guilt had never overwhelmed her quite like this. Made her sob late into the night. 

Maybe it was because this time she wasn’t sure if Riley would forgive her. Could forgive her. She certainly couldn’t forgive herself. 

And Maya wasn’t crazy. The punch hadn’t come out of nowhere. Most of their friends were still pretty mad at Lucas too. 

Granted, none of them had knocked his lights out. 

The one thing about all of this that worried Maya the most, was what it looked like. 

It looked like Maya was defending Riley’s honor. 

If that archaic tradition even still existed. 

It looked like Maya had feelings for Riley. 

Look at the facts, she thought. No normal person would punch someone in the face for their totally platonic best friend. It flooded Maya with shame, the fact that after all this time she was still scared of what people would think. 

Still scared of her own uncertain reality. 

But it didn’t really matter anymore did it?

“...”

“Riley I know it’s out of the blue but why do you think I punched him?!” Maya was shouting at this point, not feeling like she could ever say this loud enough. “Why would I ever care that much otherwise? I like you. Okay? I’ve liked you for FOUR YEARS.” A breath. “Probably longer...”

Maya crossed her arms. If she thought she felt shame before, boy was she wrong. Her vision suddenly stuck to the legs of the desk. 

Riley had her arms crossed too. A mirrored posture which caused Maya’s heart to hiccup along with her quivering lip. 

Luckily Maya was looking away from the slow controlled tears slipping down Riley’s face. 

A purposeful act of self-preservation; seeing Riley cry might actually break her down, all the way to her most vulnerable thoughts. 

“Maya it’s not out of the blue, are you kidding me of course it’s not.” Riley shakes her head. “Why do you think I’ve been in the hall pretending to be apart of the prom committee for the past hour? It’s not because it’s fun.”

“...”

Riley shrugs. “Well it was kind of fun.”

Maya lets out a wet chuckle, sniffling a bit. 

Riley uncrosses her arms and grabs a tissue from the desk, holding it within Maya’s eyeline. 

She gently takes it. 

“Maya my point is that I think we’ve both been tiptoeing around it for years.”

Maya hesitantly looks up. 

There's an electricity that runs through both of them as they look into each other’s wet eyes. 

“I stayed in that hallway for an hour because I wanted to make sure that you’re okay.”

Riley laughs bitterly. 

“Hell, when you punched Lucas the first thing I thought was ‘I hope her knuckles aren’t busted’.” 

Maya’s eyebrows creased. Becoming more shy the longer Riley talked. 

“Of course, then Lucas’s face started dripping blood.”

Maya cringes. “I’m sorry. What Lucas did sucked but he didn’t deserve that, obviously. I feel sick about it.”

Riley nods. “It was crazy. You’re crazy. But honestly I kind of wanted to punch him too.”

Maya laughs a little uncomfortably. 

“Seriously, he kissed another girl Maya.”

Maya shakes her head in disbelief. “I know what he did...”

Riley looks around the empty classroom. Wonders what her dad thinks about all this. She’s kind of avoided her parents completely the last 24 hours. 

Since Maya hit Lucas it’s all been sort of a whirlwind. 

She hit him off campus, at Topanga's (the first place they found him after hearing the cheating news from Farkle), so Maya couldn’t technically get suspended. 

But because they were still both students, this morning they had to go into the principal's office anyway. 

With Riley and Mr. Matthews in tow behind them. 

The principal gave Maya detention every day for the next two months. He said it would have to do. 

Of course last night her parents had a long talk with Maya at the kitchen table. Riley tried to listen from the hallway but ultimately gave up and went to Auggie’s room. 

Riley hadn’t yet said a word to her parents. She knew they wanted to hear everything, she knew they had no idea why Maya would punch Lucas that hard. 

But she had to do this first, she needed the full story before going to her parents, and so far? 

It was going better than she had planned. 

“To be fair, Lucas may have cheated, but I was sort of cheating too, in a way.” 

Maya’s eyebrows go up at that. 

“I wasn’t really paying a ton of attention to him toward the end. I was sort of um, focused on you, too.”

Maya can’t really breathe. 

Riley gestures to the desks. “Can we uh, sit?”

Maya carefully sits down in her old seat in the second row and Riley takes the one in front of her. They stare at each other for a moment until suddenly Riley is reaching for Maya’s hands. 

She holds both of them in her own. 

Curious, she looks down. “Do they hurt?”

Maya’s vision follows, her eyes flickering to every single knuckle, all bruised black and blue. 

Her ring finger was the worst, a sick yellow already forming. 

“Uh, yeah a little.”

Riley chuckles at Maya’s nonchalance. “You know, it’s kind of hot.”

Maya busts out a laugh. “How can you say that?!”

Riley looks up amused. “What? It is a little hot you have to admit.”

Maya shakes her head. “Huck has stitches in his chin right now Riley, I- it’s hard for me to joke about it.”

Riley nods seriously and looks into Maya’s eyes. “Yeah, y’know it does suck. But we’re going to talk about it, all of us, as friends, and we’re going to work it out ok?”

Maya nods. 

“Hey?” 

Maya looks up again. “Hm?”

“I forgive you.”

“Riley-“

“No seriously, it’s you and me. There’s nothing you could do Maya, that would stop that.”

Maya just sniffles and nods, not really sure what to say after her earlier confession. She definitely doesn’t feel like she deserves forgiveness. Not by the look on Riley’s face as her knuckles connected with Lucas’s jaw yesterday. 

No matter how much Riley cried when Farkle told them Lucas had been quietly texting and meeting up with another girl from school. 

“The only way this is going to keep working Maya, the only way to get past this, is if we all start being a little more honest with each other, including me.”

Maya felt her throat close up. 

“Maya-“ Riley’s voice broke, catching Maya’s attention immediately. 

“Riley?”

Riley takes a deep breath. “The truth is- I haven’t really liked Lucas for about a year.”

Maya’s jaw drops. “What?”

Riley takes back her hands. “I tried- I really tried but- he just- you just-“

“Hey- take a breath okay? Everything’s fine.” Maya reached out and took Riley’s hands again. 

Riley let out a steadying breath. 

“All I’m trying to say Maya, is that, for a long time I tried to convince myself that I just wasn’t into boys yet.”

Maya swallows. 

“I know that sounds crazy, it sounds crazy to me now obviously, but I thought maybe I wasn’t mature enough yet, to have all those feelings.”

Dead silence. 

“-I got to thinking though, and I thought a lot about you, and me. I realized that all those feelings were there, have been there, for a while. The attraction, the getting along, the serious stuff, all of it. All of it I felt for you but-“

Riley’s voice cracks. Her next words coming out under her breath. 

“It’s just- liking girls is so hard.”

Maya’s tears come flooding at this point, all of this absolutely breaking her heart. She wishes Riley would have told her sooner. They could’ve figured something out together. Maybe she should have said something sooner?

Maya shakes her head in disbelief and looks at Riley. She gets up out of her desk and takes Riley’s face in both hands-

They look at eachother. 

Maya kisses her. 

It’s like some sort of floodgate opens. Suddenly Riley can’t remember a single reason why she ever wouldn’t do this. Shivers going across the back of her neck and down her spine. 

Riley’s never felt anything like this. 

They break apart. Both breathing heavily, an emotionally draining day, leading to an even more emotionally draining conversation, leading to this. 

Their eyes meet briefly, pupils both blown. 

They lean in again, lips meeting more roughly this time. 

It’s like absolute fire burning through them both. Like they’re both realizing how much time they have to make up for. 

Maya breaks the kiss. “-Jesus Riley.”

Riley chuckles at the small curse.

“Why didn’t we do that sooner?” Maya’s eyes are wide. 

Riley shrugs. “Idiots, the both of us.”


End file.
